The discovery of enzymes that could cut and paste DNA made genetic engineering possible. Restriction enzymes, found naturally in bacteria, can be used to cut DNA fragment at specific sequences, while another enzyme, DNA...

Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer's historic experiment used techniques to cut and paste DNA to create the first custom-made organism containing recombined or 'recombinant' DNA. Cohen and Boyer inserted the recombinant DNA...

DNA transformation is a naturally occurring but rare event in which DNA can be transferred into bacteria. In 1970, Morton Mandel and Akiko Higa discovered a way to make E. coli more 'competent' for transforming foreign...

Two sequencing techniques were developed independently in the 1970s. The method developed by Fred Sanger used chemically altered 'dideoxy' bases to terminate newly synthesized DNA fragments at specific bases (either A,...

These instructional materials were developed with support from the National Science Foundation and have been used in embryonic stem cell courses at Stanford and at San Francisco State University. Materials include...